Trail Maintenance Guidelines and Training

Review this material before you head to the woods to work on the Ouachita trail. Here you will find information on how to maintain your section of the Ouachita trail; tools, tread, blazing, switchbacks, water control and more. It does not matter if you are a beginner or an old hand this information will keep the trail looking good from Talimena State park to Pinnacle State Park and all points in between. So take a look.

The information here consists of PDF documents containing information specific to the Ouachita Trail as well as videos produced by the USDA/National Forest Service, containing general trail maintenance information. Note that the OT blazing policy differs from that shown in the videos – refer to the ‘How to blaze’ document below for OT-specific blazing instructions.

FoOT TRAIL MAINTENANCE DOCUMENTS

FoOT Maintenance Guideis our guide for FoOT trail maintainers, describes our guidelines and standards for the Ouachita Trail corridor and tread. This should give our maintainers a good idea about how the OT corridor should be cleared and the tread maintained.

How to Blaze explains everything you need to know about how to blaze your section of Ouachita Trail.

FoOT Placard can be printed and displayed in your vehicle while out maintaining.

USDA FOREST SERVICE VIDEO TRAINING SERIES (YouTube)

Basic Trail Maintenance: Gives you a great overview of how to work in the national forest. Note: specific information on blazing is different for the Ouachita Trail, see how to blaze information sheet. (27 minutes)

Constructing Trail Switchbacks: If you have an area that is just too steep, review this information on how to reduce the slope of the trail. (28 minutes)

Hand Tools for Trail Work Part 1 (26 min) and Part 2 (25 min): What’s are Rough Hoe? Did you say pick/mattock? How do you use a McCloud? And why can’t we use weed eaters in the wilderness area? This section will give you the answers to all your tool questions.

Information about the Trail Training DVD Series: These films are from the USDA National Forest Service. They are licensed under a Creative Commons license: CC0 1.0 Universal, which means “no copyright”. The DVD set can be ordered by calling MTDC at (406)–329–3978 or by sending an e-mail request for DVD numbers 0823–2D01 and 0823-2D02 to wo_mtdc_pubs@fs.fed.us. CLICK HERE for more information.

Friends of the Ouachita Trail (FoOT) is a non-profit organization of trail users dedicated to the maintenance and improvement of the Ouachita National Recreation Trail.